I love Charlie Hebdo. How can you not love Charlie Hebdo. He hits the nail on its head so brilliantly and he makes it look so effortlessly funny. Oh, you don’t like him? Well, too bad for you.

I find the following caricature to be absolutely hilarious and spot on – especially if you’ve watched the movie he’s alluding to (click here).

Following the publication of this picture, French embassies across the world have started boosting their security measures as they prepared for a wave of demonstrations similar to those against the Americans following the anti-Islam movie that was published.

I, for one, have no idea why how some so-called Muslims even saw the prophet in that picture because all I can see is a man similar to the ones protesting getting dragged by an Orthodox Jew, an obvious jab at both religions but not at their holy figures. But what do I know, right?

The movie was disgusting. This picture though isn’t. The response of some so-called Muslims, obviously a minority, will be the same regardless. Their prophet was “insulted” therefore they must kill people. It’s a simple leap of reasoning for them. For everyone else, it’s nowhere near comprehensible. Even for other Muslims.

People are calling this the Dark Age of Muslims, in stark resemblance to the Christian witch-hunts and crusades and crackdown on science. But is the classification based?

I, for one, don’t think so.

Let me ask a question. How many Muslims look at the above picture and can’t help but smile? And why do those who smile actually do so?

The answer is quite simple: thick skin. And it’s what more Muslims need to start building. Why? Because in the age of freedom of speech that’s slowly but surely becoming less and less defined, the backward mentality of some of them when it comes to their religion is beyond unacceptable. It’s borderline nauseating.

Look at the following picture:

These pins are sold in a Christian area of Lebanon. Their origin has been reported to be somewhere in Beirut’s southern suburb but I don’t care about that. What I care about is the fact that these pins didn’t even elicit the response from Lebanese Christians that the flip flops did last year.

In the case of flip flops last year, the reaction was more than peaceful. No food chain stores were torched. The only thing that happened was that the store was closed by a court order for a weekend as people prayed in front of it. How many Muslims are publicly praying on the “insults” these days? Not many I suppose.

Keep in mind that for Christians, Jesus is God. Therefore, people insulting Him would be a much greater offense than insulting a prophet. And yet, no one is dying for insulting Jesus over and over again and let me tell you it’s not because Christians don’t have their fair share of religious pride.

How many so-called Muslims are publicly raging over the movie and the comic? Many. I’m sure there are many more Muslims who just let it pass. I’m also sure that there are many more that are better than the best of people at handling these things. But sadly that’s not the image the world gets across.

The image the world gets of many of my friends is that they are a bunch of narrow minded, religiously blind zealots who can’t but get up in a fit whenever their prophet is insulted and the world doesn’t know why. And this idea sickens me. But I can’t do anything about it because whatever I do, I’ll be the Christian looking at it from outside and preaching. So the world challenges Muslims again and again and again waiting for a change in their reaction. But the change never happens.

The reaction keeps on increasing. And the impression of Muslims becoming more blinded and more religious and, well, more unfree increases in the process. And all of this is because of the ignorant attitude of some.

The world doesn’t know that in Islam, portraying the prophet in picture is forbidden. Or it could be that they know and they don’t understand why. To be frank, I don’t even understand what the big deal is about painting a prophet in a picture. But what some so-called Muslims should know is that the world doesn’t care even if it was a cornerstone of their religion. Why’s that? Because the rest of the world is fast moving away from the bonds of religion and they expect everyone to keep up with them and the level of freedom that they are reaching. It’s overly simplistic perhaps but that’s the way it is.

The DaVinci Code. The book that caused a frenzy among Christians. It’s even banned in Lebanon. Contrast this to The Satanic Verses. Both books have more or less similar esoteric themes. Both books were widely successful. Both books are works of fiction. Both works were picked up by the corresponding religions they spoke about. Only one of those led to a fatwa asking to the murder of the author.

And I have to ask: why?

It’s not because Christians are more open minded. It’s not because they are more tolerant. God knows there are more narrow-minded Christians than they let on. I know many who are like that seeing as I come from the heart of Christian Lebanon. It’s because over the time, the majority of Christians developed a thick skin against these types of “insults.” Many don’t see them as insults anymore. I don’t think I’ll find a Muslim who doesn’t see in the above caricature an insult somehow. Even among the ones who are condemning the reactions.

But the problem isn’t only with those “people” protesting (read killing) on the streets.

Did you know that some twisted sheikh in Sidon decided to issue his own mini fatwa to permit the killing of the filmmaker behind The Innocence of Muslims? If you didn’t, now you do. How many Muslims can fathom this? The problem is that they are many. And some might even take him out on it. It has happened before with Salman Rushdie and Islam hadn’t been hit this hard since.

That sheikh’s protest was one of many that took place in Lebanon yesterday regarding the anti-Islam material. Some French language centers had even closed down for the day for fear of actions taken against them. Lebanese army tanks were spotted in the parking of Burger King and other franchises.

What some Muslims are failing to grasp is that the only thing hitting Islam and bringing it down is Muslims. And they are bashing it, tearing it, destroying it, demolishing it, annihilating every single foundation of it – all five pillars – with the behavior of some people and some beyond ignorant, beyond bearded religious men and their turban which, to those people, holds the pride of a religion whilst the only pride being held is the arrogance of said bearded religious men as they flaunt one extreme idea that defies the foundation of the religion they claim to know after another, sort of like candy at a carnival. Except it’s not haram.

Why isn’t this the dark ages of Muslims? Because such a thing is impossible to happen in this day and age. When the Christians had it, news didn’t travel in the blink of an eye. Almost everyone was ignorant. The corrupt church was the only entity effectively governing the world back then.

What is this age for Muslims? I’d like to call it the age of imbeciles. Because that’s what those violently protesting the movie are and that’s what those who are offended by Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon are. And they are the ones making their entire religion look like a religion of ignorants who can’t grasp the basic concept of freedom

But I have a solution to help these imbeciles. How? Let’s start with making the level-headed religious men of Islam more powerful. Make their voices louder than the useless but effective shouting of those rallying the angry masses. Make the fanatic religious men with their hate mixed with extremism with a dose of stupidity to top it off categorically and irrevocably nobodies. Make more “anti-Islam” material. Brochures, clips, caricatures… you name it. Call it some people being offensive, call it freedom of speech. But make so much material that the only reaction possible would be to start ignoring and grow thick skin. It’s like giving a five year old so many toys he’d be saturated. Saturate their little heads. Expose them to so many stimuli that the only thing they’d want to do is go home and tuck themselves into bed and cry themselves to sleep and then wake the following day and realize that their prophet doesn’t care one bit about the movie, the caricature, the brochure and neither should they.

Did I mention I love Charlie Hebdo? Let’s not hope some fame-seeking bearded imbecile decides to kill the cartoonist too.

2-What about the Program about Jesus last Ramadan ? people protested , they had Pressers and the Program was banned even though it has nothing insulting why can’t Muslims protest for a similar thing to happen ?

3- the people who killed and Burned are a known group of Extremists denounced by 90% of the islamic world including the Major Islamic Countries : S.Arabia , Egypt ,, Iran …etc . so why are you still babbling ? do you want people to stop protesting entirely ? its Hebdo’s ‘FREEDOM of Speech” to publish such things and you hate on people protesting against insult ?

4- Please don’t go all christians are saints and the Muslims are Hobos because that is exactly what you article implies [ even if you don’t mean so , i am not accusing you but i can read that clearly from the words and links ] . There was time when Blacks were killed wars were waged and People executed in the name of Christianity and the Church so yes every religion has its dark ages . Let alone that the most outrageous killings nowadays in Iraq and Afghanstan are done by people who claim to be Christians , and they are doing much worse than burning an embassy or killing an American .

5- please watch this video about Christianity : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtVpHUjwQSA&feature=related
and then tell me how you are not insulted . for me life is about principals . if i feel offended i will protest peacefully like 85% of the Muslims did .. you can hate and write shit but its fine , you just wrote this because like every amateur you thrive on controversy

1 – I didn’t write this without checking the other pictures. They are a caricature of the offensive movie and the events that followed, i.e. they are an exaggeration that touches on both issues and as such I don’t find them insulting. The caricatures touch on the content of the movie, their contents are not original creations.

2 – I didn’t watch the show so I can’t judge. But I can assure you Christians did not go around burning things to stop the TV show. The church simply complained to the general security which stopped it from airing. I don’t mind Muslims doing the same peaceful things. It is their right after all.

3 – I referred to the Muslims causing a stir as so-called Muslims, which clearly shows that I am familiar with your point. So the 10% as you count them are causing the image of the other 90% to be as such and this is why I’m still talking. And yeah, it is Hebdo’s freedom of speech to make fun of the protests as well as the movie.

4 – I have referred to the Christian dark ages in case you’re commenting by skimming over it. Of course, black people weren’t killed in the name of Christ but early Christians did horrible things. However, I don’t suppose you call these Muslims early Muslims and I don’t suppose the same conditions that enabled a Christian dark age exist today. Your argument regarding those Christians killing in Afghanistan is flawed. They are not doing it in the name of their religion. But the ambassador was killed in the name of religion.

Oh and OH THE SOUTH OF BEIRUT LAWWWLZ . you know who also had a similar Comment ? Al ASSIR he said anti-Aisha Dolls are being made and Sold in THE SOUTH of Beirut …. OH THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN you 2 ….. the Elitist and The Salafist

Hey Hassan. Thank you for calling me an elitist. I take that with honor from someone like you. Also, you bashing all salafists is actually an insult to many Muslims because it is a Muslim current that exists and is followed by many who are not extremists such as a very good friend of mine. Should they go protest too?

It saddens me that you ommited the parts I’ve sent you this morning (the cartoons inside & the Charlie Hebdo attitude in an other situation)
But I hope no raging sick-minded islamist will come across your post.

I meant that you saw that the cartoons inside weren’t as soft and funny as the “intouchable” parody. (That really made me laugh)
I’m a faithful Charlie Hebdo reader by the way. And when I saw the cartoons inside I just turned to the other page. En partant du principe: Don’t feed the trolls.

The way I saw them is as a caricature on the movie. They’re making fun of something that was offensive and I didn’t see them as offensive. It’s not against the prophet but against the filmmaker and the reactions that ensued.

Your blog post should be one of those “brochures” you talk about as stimuli! You should print this yourself and stick it everywhere. I really enjoyed reading it, we need more people like you to make sense of this craziness… it’s one thing to have those “imbeciles” threaten our lives by being irrational on the streets, it’s another to have leaders encourage these imbeciles to act the way they do…

just a small comment for Alex… last time I checked we are not living in the Dark ages..so this behavior is unjustified.

I support your statement about thick skin…In Canada I once stood face to face with a man who wore a t-shirt with a cross on it, and a huge X going across it… and in Saudi Arabia many of the mosques preach hatred towards “kafiroun” on fridays, on their super loud speakers. I’m so used to it, it’s like music to my ears now, I couldn’t care less.

anyway, the things I have to say about this issue aren’t have as good as yours Elie.

Spot on as per usual. A very objective and honest view of both religions. Your references to “so called” and some Muslims, clearly indicates you’re not generalizing or stereotyping the followers of the faith. People need to realise that 1. the majority of the world has a basic fundamental right to freedom of speech, 2. We live in a digital age where access to any information is instantaneous and infinite and 3. you’ll always get an odd psycho who wants to express his her beliefs, however twisted they may be. Thick skin and the ability to ignore/filter messages and information that is of no value to you is the only way to live a peaceful life. The fact that people keep bringing up the “other” photos clearly indicates some are a long way from it.

My post regarding the sandals were in reply to NowLebanon’s post about the incident, describing those who calmly protested in derogative terms. I don’t see them addressing the issue at hand in the way that they addressed those people now aren’t they?
Muslims can protest if they feel offended. But there protests don’t have the right to turn into killing people.

And in case you didn’t notice, I’ve written many times against Christian efforts to ban stuff they consider offending.